Computing Department News

A group of S3 Computing students have been taking part in a national film project this year. The pupils worked with a local filmmaker Sandie Jamieson to devise, script, film and edit their own short film. The project ended with the pupils showcasing their film at the Edinburgh Filmhouse along with 6 other schools from across the country. The pupils took part in a Q&A session and talked confidently and eloquently about the project to a large cinema audience. Click here for more information.

Two of our S5 pupils Bartosz and Craig (along with Mr Gill for technical support) travelled down to Edinburgh on a dreach Saturday in June to compete in the Annual National Robot Games. The pair took the radio controlled robot chariot, hand built during lunchtimes and free periods and competed in tug of war, obstacle course and football challenges. The boys did well, getting a sub 1 minute time on the obstacle course, scoring a goal in the football match and getting to the quarter finals of the tug of war with the help of some Tate and Lyle. Congratulations to Craig for winning the team flag design competition as well. Thanks also to the Art department who managed to totally transform our chariot at very short notice. It looked fantastic. Find out more at click here

Six of our pupils were invited down to the Glasgow Science Centre to showcase some of the extra-curricular Science and Engineering based projects they have been working on. The projects included a radio controlled robot which was built from scratch by 4 of our S5s (Chris, Bartosz, Kerry and Ben) under the expert guidance of Mr Low and Mr Gill our technicians, and a 3D printed water pump designed by two of our S1s (Daynah and Matthew). The pupils were a credit to the school and had a chance to explore the Glasgow Science Centre exhibits and take part in various STEM based challenges. Find out more at click here

Luke, Declan, Abby, Cari and Amy at the 20th Annual Dundee University School of Computing Strathmore Trophy contest

Group photo outside main lecture theatre

Our new S2s Luke, Abby, Cari and Amy competed against 20 other schools from as far a field as Glasgow today in a technology based contest. Pupils had to use Google App Inventor to devise and create a mobile phone app of their choice. The group were a credit to the school and made it to the final but sadly missed out on the top prize.

Declan Shafi was invited along as part of the group of experts giving teams technical assistance when needed and again performed admirably.

This afternoon local Commonwealth Games Hockey player Vikki Bunce visited the Computing department. Cari Wilde a keen hockey player herself and a member of the school Digital Commonwealth team interviewed Vikki about her career to date. The interview was filmed by Cari's team mates Evan Roberston and DJ Bradley. Vikki had very interesting answers to the well considered interview questions posed by Cari. The team will edit the video footage and we will share the finished film with the school when it is complete.

Today an Evening Telegraph photographer came to the Computing Department to take some photos of local Scottish Commonwealth Games Hockey player Vikki Bunce handing over prize money to Evan, Cari and DJ. The pupils were key members of the Digital Commonwealth group that through their hardwork and creativity won first place in 2 out of the 3 categories in a national competition. The money we have received will go towards purchasing new film-making, sound recording and green screen equipment and software to help take Digital Media forward as a subject area in the school.

Using the skills gained from their NPA in Digital Media,Lee Bachelor and Holly Kelly filmed 'Shine Star, Shine' the P1 nativity at St Andrew's RC primary today. Lee and Holly will edit the video footage and we will make DVDs for the primary school to sell to parents. The two S6 pupils were praised for their maturity and professionalism and it is great to see them using their talents to help one of our feeder primary schools.

On Wednesday 17th December our S4 National 5 Computing Science pupils attended the Christmas Cyber Security Lectures at Abertay. Pupils listened to talks from Dr Natalie Coull on Ethical Hacking, NCCGroup on Social Engineering and Police Scotland about the career opportunities and the risks we all face online. Pupils also heard from Dr Karen Petrie of Dundee University who gave a talk on “The women of station X” and the event closed with a hilarious “Detonate” quiz from Brian Higgins of Cyber Security Challenge UK.

Our two teams competed in the national final yesterday in which they had to pitch their game to a panel of software company professionals. Laser Games (DJ Bradley, Evan Robertson, Jacob Christie, Josh Wyness and Declan Shafi) came second place and received £30 of Amazon vouchers and £300 worth of software each. Gangsta Games (Cale Anderson, Paul Jackson and Joshua Cairns) came third and received £20 of Amazon vouchers and £200 worth of software each. Both teams of S1 and S2 pupils performed brilliantly and held their own against teams of mainly S4 pupils and had a great time in the YoYo games headquarters on the riverfront in Dundee.

Today we were lucky to get a visit from Iain Smart a third year Ethical Hacking student at Abertay and a member of the Ethical Hacking society Hacksoc. Iain explained to our S4 National 5 students what Ethical Hacking is, what the course involved and what the career prospects were like for graduates from the course. Iain also took the students through some basic programming in a language called Python.